Exciting news - the sheet rock should be installed before our Sunday, March 23rd Work Party at Sansui-ji so we can PAINT the entire interior. With enough hands we'll get it all done that day - it's going to be a blast. Bring you rolled and brushes and let's do it.
March Painting Work Party
And enjoy this update on building progress from Nomon Tim:
Dear friends, I just wanted to include the following article below for Red Cedar Sangha members to view--thank you, Hannah Sullivan
"Many of us are members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and received the following message this week from the SZBA board: “In light of the events at the inauguration and afterward, many folks in our communities are feeling targeted and fearful. To offer support and solidarity, we believe that now is the time for spiritual leadership, as has been beautifully exemplified by many priests and leaders across traditions. In that spirit, the Board of the SZBA has prepared Statement in Support of Compassion.”
“In light of the events at the inauguration and afterward, many folks in our communities are feeling targeted and fearful. To offer support and solidarity, we believe that now is the time for spiritual leadership, as has been beautifully exemplified by many priests and leaders across traditions. In that spirit, the Board of the SZBA has prepared Statement in Support of Compassion.”
Our Guiding Teacher, Nomon Tim, is a member of the Sōtō Zen Buddhist Association and has signed this statement of hope. SZBA is a an association of Sōtō priests in North America.
Board News
With everything currently happening in our Red Cedar Zen Community, we are developing new ways to structure our Board functions, our committees, and our interactions with each other (with some good ideas generated from our recent Board Retreat!) Stay tuned!
Curious about the Board's work?
You can read last month's Board of Directors Meeting Minutes here.
Members of Red Cedar can request access to Ananda, our online file sharing system, if you're interested in additional notes of the Board's doings.
Cedarwood Building Update
of our work party jobs aren't this dirty!
Great progress continues at Sansui-ji Temple. The framing is 99% done and you can walk through the unfinished building to experience the layout. Plumbing is roughed in. Electrical has started. Most of the new exterior walls are sided. It's coming right along!
Note that work parties where we'll need MANY volunteers are just around the corner. Soon we'll be installing our kitchen, installing our floor, and painting all of the walls and trim inside the temple.
Work parties are open and flexible and friendly. Come for a bit to help a little and experience the buiding or come all day to dig into the work deeply.
Bob Penny is offering Hidden Mountain Zendo, a 24' yurt meditation and retreat space, for short term use (up to a week) by donation (dana).
The space is available for personal meditation space or small group retreats. It may appeal to writers, artists, and acoustic musicians, as well as body workers or therapy practitioners wanting occasional space to host clients (massage table provided on site.)
Group size limit is 12 people. The yurt is rustic, with a composting toilet, woodstove, and no internet.
There are meditation cushions, a full kitchen, bathroom, and other furnishings. Hidden Mountain Zendo is 20 minutes from Bellingham, in a meadow surrounded by hundreds of acres of woodland.
Contact Bob about use of the space, or if you'd like to donate in support of need refurbishment, at bobpenny1253@gmail.com
Wayne Weinschenk and Raizelah Bayen are currently working together to expand volunteer /giving opportunities for the RCZC sangha.
We are working through the Interfaith Coalition where Red Cedar is a member congregation.
Help Feed the Homeless Population:
CAST is the Coffee & Sandwiches Together program, coordinated by the Interfaith Coalition. Through this program, every weekday afternoon meals are prepared, delivered and served in downtown Bellingham to the homeless population.
RCZC will be creating a team working on the 3rd Wednesday of every month to deliver and serve meals. Delivery is roughly between 4:00 and 5:00 pm; serving is about 5:00 to 7:00 (or 7:30 pm).
If you would like to join our team, please contact Raizelah (contact information below).
If Wednesday afternoons/evenings don't work for you, there are other opportunities to volunteer. They need sandwich makers on some days (this happens in the mid-afternoon), and people willing to substitute at other times.
Everyone first needs to get their Food Handlers Permit. This is a simple process involving a short, online course and quiz (cost: $10) which can be done totally online.
Again, if you would like to be on the RCZC CAST team, or volunteer within the CAST program on another day, please contact: Raizelah at raizelahb@gmail.com or 707-364-0431.
Volunteering Corner
Our volunteer coordinator, Ariel Paulenich, would like to let everyone know that this is currently under development. She will reach out with updates as well as contact info once this structure is more established; Thanks, Ariel!
Our new Volunteer Coordinator Ariel Paulenich is the person to reach out to if you have a volunteering offer or a volunteering need at Red Cedar.
See also the Committees & Volunteering page on the website.
Please be aware that registrations will be closing for all retreats and sesshin, including one-day sit, 2 days before the event is scheduled.
Why? Because the retreat managers, the Inos, the Tenzos (cooks) and others have to plan for food needs (head counts, special diets, etc) and for role assignments, seating/space needs, etc. and have this completed and printed the day before the event. If someone waits until the last minute to register, it creates additional need for switching plans, roles, etc. at the last minute--sometimes at the event itself!
Of course, there are always unplanned changes that just can't be avoided--but registering in a timely fashion really helps keep the process running smoothly. Thanks in advance for your planning ahead. If registration has closed on the website you may reach out to registrar@redcedarzen.org and we will see what we can do.
After twenty-five continuous years of mindful walking, we begin the next quarter-century of the Wilderness Dharma Program with our Receiving Water Ritual and Hills and Streams Hike on March 22nd. In conjunction with the Spring Equinox we will receive a vial of Salish Sea water to carry on our seasonal travels throughout the Nooksack and lower Skagit watersheds.
On these walks and hikes we move as a community, in peaceful and respectful appreciation of this place of practice in Pacific Cascadia, where we have chosen to live and express the dharma. We offer experiences for many levels of participants, from gentle walks in local parks to extended backpacking in the North Cascades.
This link to the WDP page shows all upcoming events. We hope you can participate and enjoy giving back gratitude to the place we call home, our Bodhimandala, our place of enlightenment.
Exploring the Lankavatara Sutra; Wednesdays, starting March 5th, 6 sessions. Join Kanho Chris in investigating short passages and exploring themes including Yogacara. The Lankavatara is a mosaic collection of small parts within the framework of the sutra.
Zen Sewing Retreat; Saturday, March 8th and Sunday, March 9th. For Jukai students and all of those who would like to join in learning Zen sewing.
Ceremony and Hike: Receiving the Waters, Hills and Streams; Saturday, March 22nd, 10 am-3 pm. Join us for our annual ritual to start the Wilderness Dharma Program season at Larrabee Beach gathering our water--followed by our Hills and Streams hike--a 4.5 mile hike in the Chuckanut Mountains.
March Construction Work Party Sunday, March 23rd, 9am.
Hike: Mt. Erie Circumambulation Saturday, April 12th, 10am-3pm. Hike around Mount Erie just above Anacortes led by Joden Bob Rose who was involved in helping save these forest lands.
April Construction Work Party Sunday, April 19th, 9am.
May Construction Work Party Sunday, May 4th, 9am.
Hidden Mountain Spring Retreat Friday afternoon, May 9th into Saturday, May 10th. Absorb the abundance of Hawk Meadow as we settle deeply into the practice at Hidden Mountain Zendo just outside of Bellingham with Nomon Tim Burnett & Reizan Bob Penny.
Lay Entrustment for Reizan Bob Penny On Saturday, May 10th at 3pm, Nomon Tim will entrust the Dharma with Reizan Bob Penny to honor and support his deep teaching role as coordinator of the Wilderness Dharma Program. Sangha is invited to come in support and celebration.
Samish Island Sesshin 2025; Begins Friday June 13th, ends Saturday, June 21. Join us for our annual highlight--7 day retreat with founding teacher Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Nomon Tim Burnett and Kanho Chris Burkhart. Zoom option also available as well as ability to attend the public daily talks.
I thought I'd share a bit more about some of the program ideas that are percolating for our new sangha life at Sansui-ji and invite your suggestions and input. Note that the titles and details and ideas I describe below are subject to change as we learn by doing what works well at the temple.
Weekly Programming:
As you may know, there will be two main weekly in-person (and hybrid/Zoom) on Wednesdays 6:30pm-8:30pm and Sundays 9:30am-Noon (plus an early zazen option).
Wednesday evenings will be Dharma Seminar where we dig more deeply into traditional Buddhist texts. There will be zazen with dokusan available but not a full chanting service. The talks may be a bit more in depth and there will be discussion. While being at every talk in a series won't be required, you'll probably do best choosing to come to several in a row. We'll announce the topics, texts and expected time frames.
I'll be the main teacher for Wednesday Dharma Seminar with stints by Kanho Chris and our other teachers.
Sunday mornings will, I think, just be called Sunday Program. This will be a little bit of everything Zen presented in an accessible and open way for both our sangha and the broader community. Zazen, kinhin, zazen, and morning service, followed by a temple cleaning work party (soji) and a Dharma talk with discussion and tea.
The teachers for Sunday Program will rotate between all of our wonderful Practice Leaders. The talks, while rooted in traditional Dharma, will be oriented towards everyday life practice with plenty of real life examples shared by the teachers.
Sometimes, I hope, we'll have pairs of Wayseeking Mind talks on Sunday where all kinds of sangha members share something of the story of how they came to the practice.
A couple of neat things about Sunday will be opportunities to gather before and after the main 9:30-Noon program. We'll try having an early practice option at 7am with a zazen, kinhin, zazen, and a brief service with a simple breakfast. And at noon it seems likely we'll have the option of lunch together (sack lunch or someone makes a soup plus potluck items).
And then we'll even have periodic workshops, meetings, and discussions at 1pm. Think about opening up some of your Sundays for this rich Dharma feast!
Lastly, we'll continue our popular Weekday Morning Sits on Zoom (and it will be possible to gather at the zendo and join from there...). These are now Monday-Friday 7am-7:40am with the same format each morning with a rotating set of leaders. You don't have to be a post-Shuso Practice Leader to help lead morning sit: read all about that here.
I'm also curious if earlier morning people are interested in organizing an additional weekday 6am sit. See me if you have some spark around that. It's so wonderful to sit with sangha at the start of your weekday and I know 7am is too late for some who are on their way to work.
Sansui-ji becoming a reality!
More Dokusan time:
I'm planning to be available for in-person and Zoom-based dokusan on Wednesday afternoons before Dharma Seminar. As there is now, there will be an option to book ahead at redcedarzen.org/nomon. On-request dokusan with our little cards will still be offered during all zazen periods when I'm present.
New & Returning Programming:
We shrunk our pre-pandemic programming down a lot to fit the reality of being totally online at first and then sharing a church basement. And that's been a while!
Now with our new building we'll have even more availability and options than we had back at Forest Street after we're settled in. Look for programs like:
Gasshō, Nomon Tim
Dear Red Cedar Zen Community,
You can now view dharma talks on our YouTube page.
They are categorized into playlists: you can find talks sorted by sesshin, teacher, and other categories such as Zen ancestors and the summer 2024 Dōgen series. We also have recent videos such as Nomon Tim's tour of Sanjui-ji.
Check back as our YouTube site is updated regularly.
If you would like to see any specific dharma talks or other videos uploaded, please contact admin@redcedarzen.org.
Gassho.
Starting in March we'll now have a more consistent morning sit practice at 7am on Monday - Friday mornings.
7am - 7:30am zazen, 7:30 - 7:35am service, 7:35 - 7:40am Dharma share.
And we're broadening our leadership pool.
Interested in helping to lead morning sit? You need to have received jukai and been doan (bell ringer) and kokyo (chant leader) at the zendo at least once.
Interested in leading? Reach out to Nomon Tim. Delighted to add more morning practice leaders.
Red Cedar Zen Community is a 501(c) non-profit organization.
